🔗 Share this article

You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the female band the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees